Coffee Reviews

There’s an old idiom—“When it all goes south…”—that is commonly used to describe something that is declining in value or quality. One could justifiably argue that the state of Southern coffee roasters has “gone south.”

Now, I’m a Chicagoan and, to me, everything below Interstate 80 is “the South;” but, with this piece, I’m going to try to redeem that old expression.

While the West coast and major metropolitan areas like Chicago and New York City have been engulfed by specialty coffee, the “third wave” is also slowly “going south.” Southern states—collectively, even—may not have the sheer quantity of critically acclaimed and nationally renown specialty coffee roasters that, say, Portland, Seattle, or San Francisco have, there are several operations that definitely stand out.

Here at the Coffee Compass, alcohol consumption isn’t really our bag. Michael is blessed with Celiac Disease, and Stephen simply abstains. This doesn’t mean that we don’t know craft beer when we see it (or rather, when we overhear someone talking about it, hear that a local brewpub is serving it, and then thereafter — like all things — we google it)….